February 25, 2013

Manufacturing Dominance

... until it didn'tSubposts with this Post:1) Manufacturing along the Tracks2) Green Houses3) Clay Pits & Ice Ponds

This post is about the manufacturing companies that once
blanketed the Township/City and District of Lake View via the Sanborn Fire Maps
of 1923 & 1950. Most manufacturers from the 19th and early 20th century was
once located near rivers & railroads for easy
and efficient access to their marketable area. The Chicago area had
abundant of both. I will highlight the most notable manufacturers first while
note-taking the names of the companies throughout this post while addressing
the fact that Lake View was a blue -collar area much like the rest of Chicago
at the turn of the 20th century. Manufacturing the 'bread & butter' for
labor and prosperity in Lake View as well as the nation. Many mega
manufacturers had problems surviving the Great
Depression of 1929 many of which were located in the old Lake View
area. Note: Please click on images to enlarge.

1947 image - Forgotten Chicago website

a proportional map that highlights manufacturing in the U.S.Manufacturing along the Tracks

Red areas indicated industrial areasThe areas were mostly along existing rail tracks or the river, the main source of jobs in the north-side.1911 images - E.H. Talbot Map via University of Chicago Collection

The Great Depression of 1929 nearly ended most of the manufacturing base that was Lake View.

The ChicagoanManufacturing Companies were mostly located along this railroad and/or river(click to enlarge)

image - Lance Grey

Within the red box, the right of way of the former
Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul RR - Evanston branch can be found. The south end of this line
linked up with the Kingsbury Street line, part of Chicago Terminal Railroad. Countless of local manufacturers built their factories along this RR now replaced by houses, apartments, condos and businesses. This branch of this RR was primarily meant for freight only.

According to a company called Urban Remains the name "northwestern" had its inception in
1877, when the firm True, Brunkhorst & Co. was organized. the five founding
members were John Brunkhorst, Gustav Hottinger, Henry Rohkam, John Tank and John R. True. The True, Brunkhorst & Company continued to do business as the North-Western Terra-Cotta Works of Chicago until 1887, when it was officially
incorporated as the Northwestern Terra Cotta Co.

'Northwestern Terra Cotta Company was Chicago's largest
manufacturer of architectural terra cotta. With headquarters at 1750 Wrightwood
Avenue when Lake View was a township & City and then part of Chicago. The company operated from 1877 until its last factory, located
in Denver, closed its doors in 1965. The firm was a leader in development of
the architectural terra cotta industry & provided building elements for
numerous Chicago buildings, including the Wrigley Building, Chicago Theatre,
and Civic Opera House.'

photos of this type - Ebayin 1911 the original building was destroyed by fire and by the next year a new building took its place in the same spot depicting the popularity and financial strength of the company

page 2

Rebuilt that Same Year

'At the beginning of the 20th century, architectural terra cotta was firmly established as America's premier material for detailing commercial structures, especially the new, steel-framed skyscrapers then rising in Chicago and New York City. After the devastating Chicago fire of 1871, the fireproof qualities of this ancient, baked-clay form propelled its acceptance as a less expensive and lightweight alternative stone. Terra cotta's popularity peaked in the 1920's, before being eclipsed by modernist curtain walls of glass, exposed steel, and concrete.

Workers feeding the kiln

mixing area

men with chisels

One of the nation's pioneering manufacturers was the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company (1877–1956), in Chicago. The company would have a plant in Denver. To direct both production and installation, the studio’s draftsmen transformed architectural blueprints into comprehensive "shop drawings" that identified exactly where and how each puzzle-like piece would be secured to its supporting structure. Favored by such international architectural luminaries as Louis H. Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, and Albert Kahn, the company ultimately contributed to thousands of buildings across the country in a wide array of styles.

men working with molds

polychrome (painting or decorate) room

In the 1890's the Northwestern Terra Cotta Company successfully recruited European craftsmen to join the firm as sculptors in its modeling shop. These highly skilled artists could earn three or four times as much as a less skilled laborer at the same factory.

Sculptors working on architectural molds models

drafting room

By 1920 the firm's Clybourn Avenue plant covered 24 acres and was the largest in the world. In addition to operating a second facility in Chicago Heights, the company subsequently acquired plants in St. Louis and Denver.

Northwestern Terra Cotta targeted its client base by advertising in trade journals such as American Architect. The company wasted no time promoting its involvement in the construction of the distinctive Wrigley Building—the first skyscraper completely clad "from sidewalk to searchlight" in terra cotta. Not only was the gleaming white-enamel office tower Chicago's tallest structure at that time, it was the first of a series that inaugurated new development north of the Chicago River.' - National Building Museum

a 1923 Sanborn Fire Map sectional

a street bridge connected the buildings

image - AmazonThe owner lived at 1054 W Oakdale Avenue on what is regarded today as Terra Cotta Rowhis death in 1929

William Deering-a veteran dry-goods wholesaler who had been doing business in Maine and New York-had established a rival harvester factory at Plano, Illinois, southwest of the big city; in 1880, Deering moved his factory to Chicago. Weary of competition, the Deering [William Deering & Company] and McCormick families [McCormick Harvesting Machine Company] began to talk about a merger of their companies during the late 1890's.

By this time, McCormick had a plant at Blue Island and Western Avenues that employed over 5,000 people; the William Deering & Company on Fullerton Avenue on the city's North Side employed about 7,000. In 1902, McCormick and Deering along with the Plano Manufacturing Co. (which had about 1,400 workers at its West Pullman plant) and two smaller farm equipment makers merged to form International Harvester. The new company was capitalized at $120 million and dominated the American market and, as its name suggested, played an important role in world markets as well. For most of the twentieth century, International Harvester (IH) was one of the leading industrial corporations in the United States; its operations were concentrated in Chicago and its suburbs.

1922 advertisement

photo - Throwing Wrenches

By 1910, when IH grossed about $100 million in annual sales, it had over 17,000 workers in the Chicago area, making it the leading employer in the region. By that time, IH had established its own steel mill on the city's far South Side, which it named Wisconsin Steel, as well as manufacturing plants in Sweden, Russia, and Germany. A manufacturer of trucks as well as tractors, during the first years of the twentieth century the company moved away from animal-powered equipment and toward motorized vehicles. By the 1930's, as the nation's leading manufacturer of trucks.

North of International Harvester facilities within the manufacturing area along the Chicago River was Adolph Luetgert's Sausage Works once located on Diversey Parkway near the north branch of the Chicago River near Northwestern Terra Cotta Company and the Deering Works.

'Albert Luetgert had established a packing house and stockyard on
the city’s north-side, in the 1700 block of West Diversey Avenue, in 1879. It had become very successful over the
years, from an initial investment of four thousand dollars to a point where the
A.L. Luetgert Sausage & Packing Co. was considered the ‘sausage king’ by 1890’s' according to the Ravenswood-Lake View Historical Association.

On May 1, 1897 Mrs. Luetgert, Louisa, disappeared. Albert told his children their mother was visiting her
sister. After a few days, Diedrich Bichnese, Louisa’s brother, reported her
missing to the police. Luetgert [changed his story] now said Louisa 'had run
away with another man.' There are several photographs from Murderpedia and with an accounting of the event by Historical Crime Detective.

Abbott Laboratories traces its beginnings to 1888 when
Dr. Wallace C. Abbott operated a small pharmaceutical facility in the kitchen
of his apartment [and then later in the basement of his home on 4605 N Hermitage Avenue with images of billing with the factory address on them.

image - Ebay

images - Ebay

image - Ravenswood-Lake View Association

He produced pills called "dosimetric granules,"
which provided a uniform quantity of drugs. He sold his products to other
physicians, and in 1900 the business was incorporated in Illinois as Abbott
Alkaloidal Company. By 1905 annual sales grew to $200,000. The name was changed
to Abbott Laboratories in 1915. During World War I, Abbott prospered by
developing anesthetics that were previously only available from Germany. These
included procaine, a replacement for German novocaine, and barbital, a
substitute for veronal. After the war Abbott built a manufacturing plant in
North Chicago.- Lehmann Brothers Collection

Companies along the now defunct

Chicago & Evanston branch of the

St. Paul, Chicago, Milwaukee,

& Pacific Railroad

The Chicago & Evanston rails were mostly used for the transportation of freight along short distances within the Chicago area as early as 1885 that was routed through the Township of Lake View from the City of Chicago to Evanston.

a caption of their product written by a seller from Etsycomposite of postcards - Etsy

their World Fair exhibit

postcard images - Ebay

postcard - Ebay

Range of this location was from 3305 to 3359 N Racine on the east side of the street and with
an apparent second factory section on the southwest corner of Clifton and Roscoe.
The buildings were constructed in 1926 and 1933 according to a 1950 Sanborn
Map, sheet 81.This company produced a lot of 1933 World Fair postcards.

Below are their products. Their 'claim to fame' were their 'doll cut outs'.

The other location was on northeast corner of Diversey and Broadway within their own building that was simply called the Curtiss Building according to this 1950 Sanborn Fire Mapwith another location according to this 1950 map below

”Chicago is the most important railroad center in North America. More lines of track radiate in more directions from Chicago than from any other city. Chicago has long been the most important interchange point for freight traffic between the nation's major railroads.” - Encyclopedia of Chicago

One such railroad was the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company - Evanston Branch that had its beginnings in 1872 twenty-eight years before commuter elevated tracks were built by the North Western Company (Redline and Brownline). The CM&P delivered freight to and from Chicago manufacturers that once included Lake View. Lake View in the 19th and mid - 20th centuries was referred to as a blue collar manufacturing area that included coal yards, metal works, meat storage warehouses, greenhouses and a well-known Chicago brewery.

a 1923 Sanborn Fire Map view

part of my personal collection

The Best Brewing Company of Chicago was located along the CM&P so to economically transport their product to market. The building was originally owned by breweries Klockgeter & Company in 1885 and then Kagebein & Folstaff one year later. The buildings occupants were many but all related to brewing beer. Their beer products of this company were the ‘Hapsburg Bock’ (1933-1962), ‘Hapsburg Beer’ (1933-1962), and ‘Best Ale’ (1937-1962). Currently, the building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 and used for residential space. Most of the buildings of the former manufacturing area are physically gone but not completely forgotten thanks to Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (Google maps of its day) that were created in the 19th century for primarily for property insurance, fire protection.

their tin of candies - EbayThe most popular company along its route was

Peerless Candiesonce located at Lakewood and Schubert in Lincoln Park along with Finkl Steelonce located further south. Read and view more about the Evanston Branch that link downtown Chicago with the Township of Evanston that was routed geographical though old Lake View

Most of the manufacturers were located along railroad tracks for easy and efficient access to their markets. Companies listed here were then located in what was still referred to as the District of Lake View.

This company provided an electrical [metal] tonearm that sat on the cabinet of
wind-up record players that allowed sound to be transferred to
a volume control and then was connected to a table radio with an adapter that
slipped between the detector tube and base of the radio.

Chicago had emerged as a major wholesale lumber market
shortly after the Civil War in the 1860's because it possessed a number of
natural and man-made advantages. Because it was located on Lake Michigan, it
could receive raw material by boat from the region's teeming forests. In
Chicago, the lumber would be milled and then delivered by train to the major
eastern cities, as well as to Minneapolis and the Dakotas and as far west as
Denver. As the railroad expanded into the treeless prairie states, the Chicago lumbermen were able to serve these growing populations with the building
materials they needed. Trainloads of Chicago lumber were also delivered to such
growing Texas cities as San Antonio and Houston. While Mr. Hines served his
apprenticeship at Martin Company, there were approximately 125 lumberyards in
Chicago, most of which were involved in the wholesale shipping business. As a
result of its lake location and excellent railroad facilities, Chicago became
the largest lumber receiving and shipping center of the world.

In 1944, Quality Hardware had a contract to support the
University of Chicago. The company canned experimental non-bonded uranium slugs and may have canned all of the slugs used in the Hanford reactorsduring World War II.

Once located at 3701 N East Ravenswood Avenue between 1950 - at this location; until 1992 in Niles Illinois.This company produce electric instrument panels, dial scales - tuning controls & knobs for radio's. Apparently, the company tired to make a market in the defense industry during the Korean War (1950-53) per this brochure ... (from Ebay)

Once located in Chicago, Illinois, the center of the pinball and arcade game industry since the early days of the coin operated amusement industry. The Chicago Coin was formed in 1931 by partners Sam Gensburg, Lou Koren and Sam Wolberg. Chicago Coin, more so than its main competitors, tended to be a general purpose arcade amusement company. The company made products such as shuffle bowling games, electro-mechanical car driving games.

Around-the-World Trainer 1955 - Ebay

all images above - Ebay 1972 pinballs

was located at 1725 W Diversey Parkway

photo - Craig's Lost Chicago

Flipper Unit Brackets for their machines - Ebay

all images above - Ebay unknown date

In 1973 Chicago Coin attempted to get in on the Pong craze by releasing two arcade game consoles: TV Football and TV Hockey. The company also manufactured a unique arcade video game item in 1975 called Super Flipper, which was essentially a video game simulation of pinball with a display monitor housed in a miniature pinball cabinet. In spite of these efforts, Chicago Coin was in financial trouble, and by 1977 the company's assets were sold to Stern Electronics.

- Wikipedia

Best Brewing Company of Chicago

This building listed in the National Registry of Historical Placesas of 1987. Several brewers operated in these building(s) from 1885 as a beer producing plant or brewery until its demise in 1961.This historical building is located at 1315-1317 West Fletcher within the Belmont & Sheffield area of Lake View. Why is this a landmark - Chicago's initial growing dominance in brewing beer.

'Curt Teich & Company opened in January 1898 in
Chicago, Illinois and closed in 1978. The Teich Company was the world's largest
printer of view and advertising Postcards. Teich is best known for its
"Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors, and
bold style.' - Wikipedia

both postcards - Chuckman Collection

The Curt Teich & Company, Inc. building is a heavy timber and masonry loft industrial structure. It consists of an original three story (west) section and a five story (east) addition. The building is located on the southeast corner of Irving Park Road and East Ravenswood Avenue, along the industrial corridor next to the railroad tracks in the neighborhood known

at the time as Ravenswood. Listed on the National Registry of Historical Places since 1990. Per the Registry, ' The Curt Teich and Company, Inc. building is a heavy
timber and masonry loft industrial structure. It consists of an original
three story (west) section and a five story (east) addition.' The building is
located on the southeast corner of Irving Park Road and East Ravenswood,
along the light industrial corridor next to the railroad tracks in the
neighborhood known as Ravenswood. The building faces north on Irving Park
Road. It was known as the world's largest volume printer that manufactured postcards. The company operated from 1898 to 1978. In fact, most of all of the postcard images in this blog are from this manufacturer and collected from various collections such as Chuckman Collection, Chicago History in Postcards, and Ebay. Read more about their world-known postcards with this link.

the company before - images from Ebay

'The earlier west section [of the building] sets on property purchased by James McDonald about 1891 and built a second plant?? - J. S. McDonald & Company by 1901. J.S. McDonald & Co produce loose-leaf ledgers. It was then purchased by Curt Teich in 1910. Though the exact date and the architect of this building are unknown, it bears resemblance to the Dearborn Street station at Polk and Dearborn, built in 1885 and designed by architect Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz. It is built of red pressed brick in a Romanesque design.' (The address is pre 1909.) - National Register Nominations For Chicago

From the 1920's to the 1940's, Curt Teich & Co., the company that originally occupied this northside address, churned out more postcards than any other printer in the world. Over its 80-year history, the company produced cards featuring more than 10,000 towns and cities in North America and 87 foreign countries. According the publication 'Hidden History of Ravenswood & Lake View' by Patrick Butler (p 116) "salespeople would take pictures of local landmarks or businesses and try to get those businesses to order postcards to promote the local attractions".

Sample of a 1910 Booklet

images - Ebay

photo of Postcard Place - Wikimapia

The location of the building is on the corner of Irving Park Road and Ravenswood Street. Currently, the building houses residences and is now called Postcard Placeas of 1996.

The finest mallet percussion instruments ever created in the United States

J.C. Deagan succeeded in transforming the rough pieces of metal into a set of perfectly tuned bells which soon became standard orchestra equipment. He began to manufacture these bells in 1880.

Later he developed many other musical instruments, including the xylophone, organ chimes, aluminum chimes, aluminum harp, Swiss hand-bells, and orchestra bells. The marimba he developed from a novelty from the jungle into an accepted musical instrument.

Per Wikipedia, a ‘watchclock’ is a mechanical clock used
by security guards as part of their Guard tour patrol system which require
regular patrols. The most commonly used form was the mechanical clock systems
that required a key for manual punching of a number to a strip of paper inside
with the time pre-printed on it. (photoS below from Ebay)

Greenhouses and hothouses were used for growing fruits, vegetables and floral plants. The townships of Jefferson and Lake View had both - greenhouses for floral growth and hothouses for fruits and vegetables.

University of Illinois in Chicago maps

This 1861 map depicts both Lake View and Jefferson Townships during the era of the hot and greenhouses. Western Avenue was the border between them.

Beginning in the mid 19th century ‘truck farms', a term used for the transportation of farm produce to market, were mostly owned and operated by German speaking folks, called Luxembourgers who used the historically regarded first settler of Lake View Township, Dr. Conrad Sulzer, business practices. The truck farmers would drive their product in horse-drawn wagons down the Old Little Fort Road known today as Lincoln Avenue to City of Chicago. Celery was the chief crop with pickles as important. This crop gained such broad distribution throughout the Midwest and East Coast, the legend is told, that local growers proudly called the area the nation's celery capital.The most well known if not the most successful of the greenhouses and hothouses of the this area was the J.A. Budlong Company located in Jefferson township community of Bowmanville with the boarding house and plant office located on Lincoln Avenue north of North 59th (Foster Avenue) blocks west of Western Avenue. Western Avenue was the border between Jefferson and Lake View Townships

The Budlong Brothers opened a successful pickle factory in 1857 and expanded into the commercial flower business with the opening of Budlong greenhouses in 1880. The farms were noted not only for pickles but cucumbers and onions. They employed Polish workers from Chicago on a seasonal basis. They are regarded by locals as the original guardians of Budlong Woods as well as Bowmanville community.

The Chicago Daily News 1903 article below highlights the farms features and its workers.

(click on article to enlarge)

According to Jennifer Sherman Yonesawa via ‎Living History of Illinois and Chicago-Facebook "the Budlong Pickle Company began in the late 1800’s on a 500-acre
farm around the area that is now Foster between California and Western. The
area is still known as Budlong Woods. In 1908 it was sold to my aunt’s family.
When her father, George Hathaway retired in the late 1950’s he sold the company
and it was eventually absorbed by Dean Foods."

Below is a Chicago Tribune article about school revisiting their namesake and honoring a man who was

one of the first to settle in the area.

Lynn Budlong: A Memory in 1965

page 2

The Albert Fuchs Greenhouses

This 1894 Sanborn Fire Map depicts the location of one of his properties on Halsted Street

Rokeby = Fremont

This 1894 Sanborn Fire Map depicts the location of one of his properties on Evanston (Broadway) Avenue between Addison and Waveland Avenues

Fuch would replace his greenhouseswith flats (apts) called the Chateauand created a theater of the same name on Grace off Halsted Street. The article below highlights this fact.

Wittbold & Company

greenhouse and nurserywith their Buckingham Green House Shop

George Wittbold arrived in Chicago in 1857 on the heels of Dr. Conrad Sulzer, the grandfather of Lake View Township and at the same time of J.A. Budlong. George Wittbold was apparently the former gardener of King that governed the Principality of Hanover (Germany), King Ernest Augustus who died in 1851. Upon Mr. Wittbold's arrival the rural German population in the township were general known as farmers or commercial gardeners. He followed suite and later would create a multi-generational business that would last well into the 20th century by adding a nursery/retail shop on Buckingham Place. Wittbold & Company grew tropical plants that included ferns and palms as wells as roses and chrysanthemums in the family greenhouses located on the corner of Halsted and School (Aldine) Streets. The family business would sell their product in their store located in the pre-1909 address of 1657-59 Buckingham Place (745 West Buckingham) currently luxury condos.

The Buckingham Place building was renovated from a storefront to condo units during the 1990's. I remember the store as an expanse, independent floral store when I moved to LakeView in 1993 as highlighted in the article below.

(click on article to enlarge)

Most of the earliest greenhouse were located near cemeteries of the old township much like J.A Budlong properties near Rose Hill Cemetery.

The Sanborn Fire Maps of 1894 highlights most of them located in the newly formed district of Lake View in Chicago.

‘Fired clay brick’ is a type of brick that has been used as a primary building material before the United States became an independent nation.Clay and shale are the important ingredients in the manufacturer of bricks and are dug original from earth pits then fired in a kiln at up to 2,000 degrees. By going through a chemical-transforming, verification process in the kiln, the minerals in the clay/shale unit fuse together and become a material that looks great, lasts an incredibly long time and needs practically no maintenance. With its modular-unit size dimensions and built-in design flexibility, brick has always been a material of choice for this country's residential and commercial structures. - text fromThe Brick Industry Association, edited

‘Clay pavers’ are another type of clay brick that have been used in the United States since colonial times. A company called Indianapolis Motor Speedway installed over three million clay paver's in 1910-1911, and they are still residing under the asphalt surface of many urban areas.

Where a majority of the ponds were located per this 1887 Sanborn Fire Map south of Diversey

When clay pits satisfied or nearly satisfied their usefulness, most often, the earth pits would be allowed by the owners to be filled-in with water (naturally?) so that an ice pond would be created for winter fun. But as the articles below indicate the summer months tell a different and much less fun story of the unhealthy conditions of the pits when the brick manufacturers abandoned the useless pits. The article mentions that the pits were allowed to filled with garbage and other waste products in the humid and hot summer months some of the pits located near schools. Some of the pits would be covered during the summer months the odor was repugnant to bare.The Chicago Tribune article below is dated June 17, 1892.Below is a short history of the clay pits and its relationship to manufacturing of bricks from Lake View Saga 1837-1985

Began Death Pits & Health Issue in 1892

Another Article on the Next Day

Below are 1894 Sanborn Fire Maps depicting either clay pits or ice ponds is what was then called the newly formed District of Lake View established after the annexation of the City of Lake View in 1889.

Tools of the TradeThe tools used to remove ice blocks from the ice ponds to be stored in the precursor to electric refrigerators - ice boxes

2 images - Ebay

All the green/hot houses and clay pits/ice ponds have been replaced by dwellings that mirrored the technologies and/or usefulness of an era that is now mostly forgotten.

This post reminds the reader/viewer what once was in our neighborhood area. When you walk down a street shown above ... pause and remember with some regret for these pits could have been natural reservoirs or lagoons.

When you fool with Mother Nature

before the Big Tunnel in the 1970's by Lance Grey

"Interesting how they took advantage of the ancient lake beds in the swath from Fullerton to Belmont. - Not only for brickyards, but in the Winter months for small artificial Lakes centered near today's Wrightwood Park, to build Ice Houses & Kilns (per Chas. Rasscher 1887 maps) - And the role the clay plays in recurring flooding problems in the area- as experienced near this Quonset Warehouse known as Majestic Screw & Bolt where I worked in the '70’s just south of Diversey on Greenview. [Shown in a May-1955 photo]"

'Among the dozen or more binderies of the day, his alone
survives, at 1751 W. Belmont Ave., where the bindery's success over 128 years
stands as a monument to shrewd adaptation to changing times.' Read more from this 1996 article by Chicago Tribune.

a sample of their craftsmenship

images - Elston Press

The tradition continued 1936(click on all segments of this article to enlarge)

'Architectural Terra Cotta refers to a high grade of aged
clay that has been mixed with sand and pulverized fired clay for use on
buildings. The word comes from the Latin, “cooked earth” which refers to the
heating of the clay to temperatures in the range of 2000-2350 degrees
Fahrenheit. The terra cotta was used to enhance the decorative aspects of
architecture and it became popular in the 1870's in the United States after a
decade of use in England. Clay as a building material had the advantage of
being both inexpensive, light weight and easily molded into a variety of shapes.
The process of creating a decorative piece to be attached to the exterior of
the building was essentially a handmade process. Molds were designed in
decorative styles such as Classical Revival, Beaux Arts and Baroque with
curling spirals and leaf designs. These molds were made from clay prototypes by
hand. Placing multiple pieces of glazed terracotta on a building involved first
choosing the mold designs and including them in the architectural drawings. The
pieces chosen had to be made over-sized in order to allow for shrinkage. Once
the clay was pressed into the plaster mold, it was removed and glazed. The
glaze is a coating of silica, clay and minerals mixed in water which when fired
leaves a smooth and hardened surface. The most popular color was white or
beige. Brighter colors might be golds, greens and blues or accents of orange.
Each piece had to be carefully numbered to insure installation in the correct
position. The whole process took eight weeks from the time of ordering. The
mold pieces were rather thin compared to the bricks and stone used in buildings.
These thin pieces had to be applied to concrete when being attached to the
building. The use of glaze on these pieces began in the 1890's. While terra
cotta itself is essentially waterproof like your coffee mug or toilet it is
installed in blocks or pieces and sometimes care was not taken in the
attachment of the terra cotta to the building or to the other pieces with
grout. Because of the freeze and thaw cycle in many cities, the terracotta can
actually take on water, expand and cause the glaze to crack called crazing.
Then the protection of the glaze surface is diminished and the freeze and thaw
process can lead to more serious cracking and something called spalling, where
pieces of the glaze and clay fall off the building.'

Important Note:

These posts are exclusively used for educational purposes. I do not wish to gain monetary profit from this blog nor should anyone else without permission for the original source - thanks!

Narrative & Navigation

This has been a passion of mine for several years. This passion began with a simple inquiry of an ornate gate that surrounds a parking lot on my street. This singular inquiry lead me to learn everything I could online about the history of my neighborhood - Lake View, one of the 77 neighborhoods within the City of Chicago. Consider this topical blog as an online library of information for educators like myself who intend to teach others about this historical & robust corner of Chicago. I hope you enjoy the read and add any type of comments at the end of each post. I have a Facebook presence called 'LakeView Historical'.